A federal court blocked a recent move of the Bush administration to allow Medicare to only pay for the least expensive treatment available without regard to the medical issues. The administration saw instituting this limitation as a way to cut costs to the financially strapped Medicare Program. The court decided that congress sets the Medicare [...]
I recently met a prostate cancer survivor whose doctor prescribed a new “miracle drug” to treat his loss of bone density caused by hormone therapy. He was given a prescription for FORTEO® and told that this drug has proven itself a better alternative to bisphosphonates, the normal treatment for bone density loss. Forteo® is a [...]
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is slowly becoming a better-known treatment for prostate cancer in the United States. (What is HIFU- high-intensity focused ultrasound that rapidly heats and destroys the prostate.) HIFU has been used in Europe and Mexico for a period with an increasing number of Americans becoming interested in it and traveling to receive [...]
The FDA has launched a web site that is now available to both patients and health care professionals that gives complete access to the information on file about all adverse effects and drug safety concerns for all FDA approved prescription medications. The goal of the site is to consolidate all this information into one place [...]
A prominent attorney, Frederick Baron, who is dying of bone marrow cancer, has been granted his wish, to receive the drug Tysabri. After significant wrangling, The FDA and the Mayo Clinic found a legal basis to give him the drug in an emergency situation, even though Tysabri is not approved for any cancers. This decision [...]